Westtown School is a dynamic educational community. Throughout our history, we have evolved to better support each new generation of young learners and prepare them for leadership of a more just, equitable, and peaceful future. Lighting the Way, our long-range strategic vision, captures the essentials of Westtown’s history, while highlighting three bold priorities for the years to come. Our vision builds on fundamental ideals of Friends education, centuries of spirit-led learning and growth, and our core Quaker calling to seek out and honor that of God in every person. Lighting the Way describes how we will further illuminate three vital parts of the Westtown experience: knowledge, community, and environment.
Read on to learn more; you also can find a single-page summary of Lighting the Wayhere.
Knowledge, Illuminated
To ensure that today’s Westtown students will flourish in a world marked by technological and social change, we will direct our exceptional academic program, robust co-curricular opportunities, and life-changing residential program toward the skills they will need to navigate the future, while grounding them in Quaker values and spiritual discernment.
Community, Illuminated
To empower our students to lead the world toward a just and compassionate future with joy and optimism, Westtown will deepen our ability to honor that of God in all by engaging our whole community in the task of building a need-blind, anti-bias, anti-racist, inclusive school.
Environment, Illuminated
To motivate students to actively and knowledgeably engage in the pressing need to steward our resources and care for the environment, we will model sustainable practices in our community and provide students with an inspiring campus in which to live, learn, and grow.
We will inspire learning in simple, accessible, high-quality, innovative spaces, which together create a harmonious campus aesthetic, through a balance of renewal, renovation, and new building.
For 50 years, the Center for the Living Arts has served as an artistic home for our students as they developed their creative voices. Because we are rooted in Westtown’s commitment to environmental and financial stewardship, we have chosen to build on the excellent bones of the existing structures and reimagine the Center for a new era. Westtown’s Visual and Performing Arts program is devoted to the education of a new generation of artists who are informed, empowered, collaborative, empathetic, and prepared for leadership of a better world through creative expression, and the new Center for the Living Arts will truly reflect our program’s aim and the school’s mission. Our commitment to process, collaboration, and innovation, to guiding student artists of all disciplines to realize their individual gifts, to be inspired by their beautiful surroundings and excellent faculty, and to shining their own Inner Light are the foundations of this new vision for the Center for the Living Arts.
– William Addis, Middle School Principal
Community
Nathan Bohn ’83 – Alum
We will dramatically increase diversity in each division in terms of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and other facets of personal identity.
My wife and I eat dinner in the dining hall almost every night. When I scan the room, the diversity at the tables of eight is awesome and so much greater than when I was a student in the 80s. Preparing students to lead requires building cultural competency and developing an eagerness for different perspectives. That happens in and out of the classroom. The more we can have those spaces reflect the world, the better.
– Nathan Bohn ’83, Alum
Community
Marissa Colston – Upper School History Teacher
We will cultivate positive racial identity, allyship, and cultural competency, raise awareness of unconscious bias, mitigate the detrimental effects of privilege, and work towards dismantling structural racism.
When we have a better understanding of who we are, including the many intersections of our identities, we can better understand and learn about the multifaceted identities of our community. We can be more open and less judgmental of one’s experience. We will be able to name and recognize the privileges or lack of privileges we have, learn more about our own unconscious bias and be motivated to engage in the ongoing work to stop acting on them. From this we can form the foundation to create anti-racist structures that will allow all of our community members to be included and have the support to thrive and share their gifts to their fullest potential.
– Marissa Colston, Upper School History Teacher
Environment
Kate Donnelly – Director of Facilities
We will pursue carbon-neutrality in our campus operations.
As the Director of Facilities, Westtown School’s pursuit of carbon-neutrality shows a commitment to the health of our students, employees, community and world. Since starting at Westtown in February 2019, I have learned that so much has already been accomplished towards this goal. Our electricity is purchased as 100% wind power. Geothermal heating and cooling systems have been added to select dormitories and campus housing. We have solar panels to support our electrical consumption at the Athletic Center and our boiler plant runs on natural gas. We also have building controls in place to ensure efficiency in our energy usage. Westtown’s dedication to this goal has and will continue to create an environment for our community that will be educational, sustainable and fiscally responsible.
– Kate Donnelly, Director of Facilities
Community
Jay Farrow ’75 – Alum
We will maximize access to Westtown by expanding our ability to enroll students without regard to their financial capacity through robust philanthropy and auxiliary revenue.
As Westtown strives to build an inclusive and equitable community by intentionally broadening its commitment to socioeconomic diversity, we want our talented, high-financial-need students in each division to feel a real sense of belonging and to feel valued. By having equal access to resources and empowering programmatic experiences like their classmates, our high-financial-need students will be able to pursue their aspirations, to be full participants and contributors, and to thrive at Westtown from a platform that is more level and less restricted due to finances. Thank you for sharing our vision and for advancing this vital endeavor.
– Jay Farrow ’75, Alum
Environment
Carolyn Hapeman, CPA – Dean of Finance & Operations
We will seek mission-aligned and environmentally-sensitive ways of generating auxiliary revenue while minimizing the impact on our student community.
Carolyn Hapeman, CPA – Dean of Finance & Operations
Auxiliary programming at Westtown School currently includes summer camp, after-school care, and facility rentals. Increasing our revenue in these programs, and expanding our program offerings, is an important focus of our Director of Auxiliary Programs. Guided by our Auxiliary Programs Strategic Plan, they will continue to develop admissions-driven programming that is both fun and educational, and will enable us to expand and strengthen our brand for years to come.
– Carolyn Hapeman, CPA, Dean of Finance & Operations
Knowledge
Matthew Herrera – Director of Information Technology
We will show students how to use technology mindfully, so that they develop positive self-images, healthy relationships, and strong community ties.
Getting outside gives children the space and time to connect with and learn about the natural world, about growing food, and understanding the human relationship with the land. Food and the growing of it are levelers of society, and students, with seeds in their hands, become the progenitors of our shared humanity. Our hands-on program centers around connecting students to the land, to the stories of those who farm and care for it, and to each other. Understanding the way nature feeds us and how local acts have global impact is an important aspect of our curriculum.
– Tim Mountz, Farm Manager
Knowledge
Karyn Payton – Lower School Principal
We will help students hone the essential skills of critical thinking, communication, and empathy, and empower them to draw out those skills in other people.
At Westtown, we believe that academic knowledge is not enough to produce stewards and leaders of a better world. Because of this, we emphasize and prioritize the social and emotional development of our students. Beginning in Pre-Kindergarten our students are exposed to an intentionally planned and sequenced social-emotional curriculum. The skills of effective communication, thinking critically about interpersonal relationships, and promoting empathy for others are continuously revisited. Our students learn to solve interpersonal conflict through discussions that ask them to view the situation through the eyes of another. Rather than provide solutions to our students we ask them the question of “How might we?” so that they can learn to solve problems on their own.
– Karyn Payton, Lower School Principal
Knowledge
Megan Rose – Middle School English Teacher
We will challenge students to develop the tools and ethical foundation needed to build innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing problems.
Last year during a car ride home, my first grader asked me, “Did you know you can be a chagemaker and a peacemaker?” He had been studying Barack Obama and Malala Yousafzai. When he arrives in my 8th grade English classroom, he will read Jackie Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming and Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, learning how shared stories have the power to disrupt oppression. He will partner with our sister school, Heritage Academy, in Ghana, and use design thinking to address some of their — and our — most pressing challenges. In Upper School, he might listen to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie decry the danger of the “single story” and then debate onstage the ethical questions of Antigone, still relevant today. His peers will be students from around the world, thanks to Westtown’s boarding program. My goal as a teacher (and a mom) is to provide him the tools — empathy, curiosity, confidence, and creativity — he will need to solve a future we can’t predict. Though we are not Quaker, I was drawn to teach here sixteen years ago by Westtown’s mission. Every day in the car, my choice has been affirmed.
– Megan Rose , Middle School English Teacher
Knowledge
Mauricio Torres ’08 – Alum
We will teach students to be informed, effective participants in civil discourse.
Westtown offers a purposeful education that exceeds the goal of ensuring that our graduates go on to remarkable colleges and universities. Across all three divisions, we offer an education that orients students towards more ethical and equitable living in the world. Westonians are called to consider how differences—be it class, race, gender, sexuality, ability, nationality, or faith tradition—make a difference. In that understanding, Westonians are called to engage meaningfully with human differences so as to come to a keener understanding of their own subjectivity and work collaboratively towards ushering forth a more just world. This is undoubtedly challenging and fearsome work, but watching young people rise to the challenge has been a career-defining experience.
– Mauricio Torres ’08, Alum
Community
Kelly Yiadom – Lower and Middle School Equity and Inclusion Coordinator
We will engage all Westonians in the work of creating a supportive environment for students, especially those from marginalized identity groups.
Kelly Yiadom – Lower and Middle School Equity and Inclusion Coordinator
The social and emotional growth of our students ensures they have more access to academic success. An essential part of that progress, and building students’ DEI/SEL toolbox, is recognizing and honoring the varying students’ identities, creating a safe space of belonging, and dismantling systems that affect our BIPOC and marginalized students whether their difference exists in religion, class, gender identity, and ability.
– Kelly Yiadom, Lower and Middle School Equity and Inclusion Coordinator
Community
Nathan Bohn ’83 – Alum
We will dramatically increase diversity in each division in terms of race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and other facets of personal identity.
My wife and I eat dinner in the dining hall almost every night. When I scan the room, the diversity at the tables of eight is awesome and so much greater than when I was a student in the 80s. Preparing students to lead requires building cultural competency and developing an eagerness for different perspectives. That happens in and out of the classroom. The more we can have those spaces reflect the world, the better.
– Nathan Bohn, Alum
Community
Marissa Colston – Upper School History Teacher
We will cultivate positive racial identity, allyship, and cultural competency, raise awareness of unconscious bias, mitigate the detrimental effects of privilege, and work towards dismantling structural racism.
When we have a better understanding of who we are, including the many intersections of our identities, we can better understand and learn about the multifaceted identities of our community. We can be more open and less judgmental of one’s experience. We will be able to name and recognize the privileges or lack of privileges we have, learn more about our own unconscious bias and be motivated to engage in the ongoing work to stop acting on them. From this we can form the foundation to create anti-racist structures that will allow all of our community members to be included and have the support to thrive and share their gifts to their fullest potential.
– Marissa Colston, Upper School History Teacher
Community
Jay Farrow ’75 – Alum
We will maximize access to Westtown by expanding our ability to enroll students without regard to their financial capacity through robust philanthropy and auxiliary revenue.
As Westtown strives to build an inclusive and equitable community by intentionally broadening its commitment to socioeconomic diversity, we want our talented, high-financial-need students in each division to feel a real sense of belonging and to feel valued. By having equal access to resources and empowering programmatic experiences like their classmates, our high-financial-need students will be able to pursue their aspirations, to be full participants and contributors, and to thrive at Westtown from a platform that is more level and less restricted due to finances. Thank you for sharing our vision and for advancing this vital endeavor.
– Jay Farrow, Alum
Community
Kelly Yiadom – Lower and Middle School Equity and Inclusion Coordinator
We will engage all Westonians in the work of creating a supportive environment for students, especially those from marginalized identity groups.
Kelly Yiadom – Lower and Middle School Equity and Inclusion Coordinator
The social and emotional growth of our students ensures they have more access to academic success. An essential part of that progress, and building students’ DEI/SEL toolbox, is recognizing and honoring the varying students’ identities, creating a safe space of belonging, and dismantling systems that affect our BIPOC and marginalized students whether their difference exists in religion, class, gender identity, and ability.
– Kelly Yiadom, Lower and Middle School Equity and Inclusion Coordinator
Environment
William Addis – Middle School Principal
We will inspire learning in simple, accessible, high-quality, innovative spaces, which together create a harmonious campus aesthetic, through a balance of renewal, renovation, and new building.
For 50 years, the Center for the Living Arts has served as an artistic home for our students as they developed their creative voices. Because we are rooted in Westtown’s commitment to environmental and financial stewardship, we have chosen to build on the excellent bones of the existing structures and reimagine the Center for a new era. Westtown’s Visual and Performing Arts program is devoted to the education of a new generation of artists who are informed, empowered, collaborative, empathetic, and prepared for leadership of a better world through creative expression, and the new Center for the Living Arts will truly reflect our program’s aim and the school’s mission. Our commitment to process, collaboration, and innovation, to guiding student artists of all disciplines to realize their individual gifts, to be inspired by their beautiful surroundings and excellent faculty, and to shining their own Inner Light are the foundations of this new vision for the Center for the Living Arts.
– William Addis, Middle School Principal
Environment
Kate Donnelly – Director of Facilities
We will pursue carbon-neutrality in our campus operations.
As the Director of Facilities, Westtown School’s pursuit of carbon-neutrality shows a commitment to the health of our students, employees, community and world. Since starting at Westtown in February 2019, I have learned that so much has already been accomplished towards this goal. Our electricity is purchased as 100% wind power. Geothermal heating and cooling systems have been added to select dormitories and campus housing. We have solar panels to support our electrical consumption at the Athletic Center and our boiler plant runs on natural gas. We also have building controls in place to ensure efficiency in our energy usage. Westtown’s dedication to this goal has and will continue to create an environment for our community that will be educational, sustainable and fiscally responsible.
– Kate Donnelly, Director of Facilities
Environment
Carolyn Hapeman, CPA – Dean of Finance & Operations
We will seek mission-aligned and environmentally-sensitive ways of generating auxiliary revenue while minimizing the impact on our student community.
Auxiliary programming at Westtown School currently includes summer camp, after-school care, and facility rentals. Increasing our revenue in these programs, and expanding our program offerings, is an important focus of our Director of Auxiliary Programs. Guided by our Auxiliary Programs Strategic Plan, they will continue to develop admissions-driven programming that is both fun and educational, and will enable us to expand and strengthen our brand for years to come.
– Carolyn Hapeman, Dean of Finance & Operations
Environment
Tim Mountz – Farm Manager
We will enhance the connections between our program and our open land, forests, lake, and creek.
Getting outside gives children the space and time to connect with and learn about the natural world, about growing food, and understanding the human relationship with the land. Food and the growing of it are levelers of society, and students, with seeds in their hands, become the progenitors of our shared humanity. Our hands-on program centers around connecting students to the land, to the stories of those who farm and care for it, and to each other. Understanding the way nature feeds us and how local acts have global impact is an important aspect of our curriculum.
– Tim Mountz, Farm Manager
Knowledge
Matthew Herrera – Director of Information Technology
We will show students how to use technology mindfully, so that they develop positive self-images, healthy relationships, and strong community ties.
Matthew Herrera – Director of Information Technology
…
– Matthew Herrera, Director of Information Technology
Knowledge
Karyn Payton – Lower School Principal
We will help students hone the essential skills of critical thinking, communication, and empathy, and empower them to draw out those skills in other people.
At Westtown, we believe that academic knowledge is not enough to produce stewards and leaders of a better world. Because of this, we emphasize and prioritize the social and emotional development of our students. Beginning in Pre-Kindergarten our students are exposed to an intentionally planned and sequenced social-emotional curriculum. The skills of effective communication, thinking critically about interpersonal relationships, and promoting empathy for others are continuously revisited. Our students learn to solve interpersonal conflict through discussions that ask them to view the situation through the eyes of another. Rather than provide solutions to our students we ask them the question of “How might we?” so that they can learn to solve problems on their own.
– Karyn Payton, Lower School Principal
Knowledge
Megan Rose – Middle School English Teacher
We will challenge students to develop the tools and ethical foundation needed to build innovative solutions to the world’s most pressing problems.
Last year during a car ride home, my first grader asked me, “Did you know you can be a chagemaker and a peacemaker?” He had been studying Barack Obama and Malala Yousafzai. When he arrives in my 8th grade English classroom, he will read Jackie Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming and Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis, learning how shared stories have the power to disrupt oppression. He will partner with our sister school, Heritage Academy, in Ghana, and use design thinking to address some of their — and our — most pressing challenges. In Upper School, he might listen to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie decry the danger of the “single story” and then debate onstage the ethical questions of Antigone, still relevant today. His peers will be students from around the world, thanks to Westtown’s boarding program. My goal as a teacher (and a mom) is to provide him the tools — empathy, curiosity, confidence, and creativity — he will need to solve a future we can’t predict. Though we are not Quaker, I was drawn to teach here sixteen years ago by Westtown’s mission. Every day in the car, my choice has been affirmed.
– Megan Rose, Middle School English Teacher
Knowledge
Mauricio Torres ’08 – Alum
We will teach students to be informed, effective participants in civil discourse.
Westtown offers a purposeful education that exceeds the goal of ensuring that our graduates go on to remarkable colleges and universities. Across all three divisions, we offer an education that orients students towards more ethical and equitable living in the world. Westonians are called to consider how differences—be it class, race, gender, sexuality, ability, nationality, or faith tradition—make a difference. In that understanding, Westonians are called to engage meaningfully with human differences so as to come to a keener understanding of their own subjectivity and work collaboratively towards ushering forth a more just world. This is undoubtedly challenging and fearsome work, but watching young people rise to the challenge has been a career-defining experience.
– Mauricio Torres, Alum
The Strategic Vision Process
Following the completion of the school’s previous Strategic Plan — The World Needs More Westonians — at the end of 2018, Westtown initiated a careful and collaborative process to discern our strategic priorities for the coming years. The school engaged a group of Trustees and administrators to serve as the Strategic Vision Team. The result is the school’s new Strategic Vision. Over the course of 12 months they: held brainstorming sessions with faculty, staff, administrators, and trustees; identified prominent themes; distilled ideas and feedback into content; and determined criteria to ensure ongoing support of the Vision. Approved by the Board of Trustees in early 2020 and updated in 2023, this brief, bold document lifts up our excellent, future-oriented academic program, our work in diversity, equity, and inclusion, and our stewardship of our beloved 600-acre campus.